Menu

WW1

Lionel Sidney Burton was a serjeant in the Leicestershire Yeomanry. He was killed on 13 May 1915 and is commemorated among the names on the Menin Gate at the Ypres Memorial.

That day the Leicestershire Yeomanry had been holding the line at Frezenberg, east of Ypres and found itself under attack from German artillery for 16 consecutive hours. The bombardment began at 4am and was followed by an unsuccessful advance at 7am. A counter attack by the 10th Hussars later in the afternoon relieved the pressure, but not without cost. Serjeant Lionel Sidney Burton was one of 93 members of the Leicestershire Yeomanry recorded as losing their lives on that day alone.

A Sergeant Cookson, writing to the family, said: “I regret to inform you that your son was killed yesterday (13th insnt.) when doing his duty in the trenches. There is a long list of others, and as it may take some time to send information officially, I have thought it best , though it is a painful duty, to inform you privately. I cannot as yet give any details, except death was instantaneous. May I express the sympathy of the whole Squadron – I may, indeed, say the whole of the Regiment – with you and Mrs. Burton, and perhaps especially Leo’s young bride.“

He had married Sarah Lilian Burchnell in the Depwade district of Norfolk two days before he left for the front on November the 1st 1914.

Lionel was born in Leicester in the second quarter of 1889 and baptised in Shearsby on the 2nd May. In 1911 he was living with his parents and his stated occupation was a nursery traveler. He had an older brother (by four years), Herbert Stewart who was an assistant in business. His mother Sarah Elliott, had been born in Shearsby and was the daughter of John Elliott (born in 1816) who lived in High Street. His father was Harry Herbert Burton, son of a Mr. J. Burton, of London. In 1896 he was attending school in Shearsby.

Many newspapers reported his death, with the Illustrated Police News reminding its readers of his developing reputation as a rugby player: “Sergeant LionelBurton was one of the Leicester [Rugby] Football Club’s regular forwards. He had played for them for three seasons, and during that period had enjoyed the esteem alike of his colleagues and of opponents”. He was the first of the Leicester Rugby Club’s players to lose their lives in the Great War.

Horace Alfred Hensman was born on 26 July 1896 in Lower Thrift Street, Northampton. He was the eldest son of Alfred Hensman and his wife Angelina Jane Jenkins. Alfred had been born in Ecton, Northants. and he and Angelina probably met when both working as attendants at the Northampton Lunatic Asylum. Horace had a younger brother, Percy, who also enlisted (underage) in the army in October 1915. He stated that his next of kin was Lena Hensman, then keeping the Old Crown Inn, Shearsby. Both Horace’s sister Lena, and father, Alfred are buried in the Shearsby churchyard.

Horace served in the 7th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment as a private. His service number was 13015. He died on the first day of the first battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916, a few days short of his 20th birthday. He is buried in the Dantzig British Cemetery at Mametz, Grave III, D.5.

The Grave Registration Report for the Ploegsteert Memorial in Hainault, Belgium has only brief details about Robert Simons. He is just one of the 11,401 casualties buried and commemorated there. It states that he was the son of Reuben Simons, of Fleckney, Leicester; husband of Grace Lilian Simons, of 103, St. Leonards Rd., Clarendon Park, Leicester.

He was a member of the Third Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, service number 21373. Around the date of his death there was action in the Ypres/Armentiers area in the Battle of the Lys.

In the 1901 census, Robert, aged 14, was registered with his sisters; Mary E. (14), Frances Helen (11) and Florence Rebecca (9). He had been born in 1887, but was already working as a hosiery hand by that year At the next census in 1911 he was found visiting the Briggs family of Sutton In Ashfield, Nottinghamshire and working as a hosiery maker.

His first appearance in the census returns though was in 1891 as Bob Simons living on Mill Lane, Shearsby with his parents Reuben (born in 1850) and Eliza, and older brothers Charley and Harry. Reuben had married Eliza Weston in 1872. She was the daughter of Thomas and Mary Weston of Shearsby and had been christened there in April 1848.

Croisilles is a village about 13 kilometres south-east of Arras. The British Cemetery lies off a track, approximately 300 metres long, to the south-east of the village on the road to Ecoust-St-Mein/St Leger. It is there that Shearsby-born William Clowes was buried after falling casualty during the fight to defend the trenches around the village on 25th July 1917.

William was serving as a 40 year old private (7/15659) in the 7th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment. The regimental war diary for that date records night-time patrols aiming to catch the enemy out mending gaps in their wire. On the night William was killed there were two others wounded.

William was the son of William Clowes the fellmonger and his wife Millicent. Back in 1901 he had been working with his father, brother Bertie and sister Annie in the fellmongering trade (leather-workers). In the 1891 Census the family are recorded as living on the Bank, perhaps next door to the Old Crown.